The majority of our clients come to us already with the cloud in mind as their solution. Why have they decided already on this solution instead of hosting their application on-premise, using their own resources? We’ll briefly go over the different types of cloud service models and then move on to why entrepreneurs who work with us tend to choose cloud hosting for their businesses.

Cloud basics

Let’s quickly cover the essentials of the topic at hand.

When hosting on-premise, the business is responsible for all the servers (bought or rented), employees, and general resources needed to host and run their application.
With cloud servers, you're not responsible for dedicated servers. Instead, your cloud hosting provider manages the on-demand resources where your product is hosted.

There are three main cloud service models.

Platform as a service- develop and deploy applications in the cloud. Resources are purchased on an on-demand (Pay-as-you-go) basis. Every stage of development is supported from testing to updating a launched product. It’s not just server hardware you’re using but also software.
Infrastructure as a service- allows you to rent servers in the cloud to deliver fundamental compute, network, and storage resources on-demand. You have the infrastructure to host and network web applications, websites, and much more.
Serverless computing- developers can build and test applications using cloud server resources on demand. You are basically renting server resources without access to a virtual computer system.

What’s wrong with hosting an app on-premise?

The choice to take advantage of cloud computing is usually connected to two advantages: saving money, and creating a more agile team and development process.

In the case that a startup decides to operate their own data centers, they face multiple disadvantages.

Additional expenses- You pay not only for the servers themselves, but also the overhead of maintenance and employees like admins and technicians, internet connection, updates, and more.
Complicated server operations- Building a networked server that handles application development, running the final product, and your website is no small undertaking. And every complication you add makes updates and maintenance that much more complicated.
Leasing or buying machines- The additional complication of acquiring equipment comes into play. There is not only the issue of leasing or buying but also of operation system and hardware requirements for your particular needs.
The right internet connection- You’ll need a fast internet connection. And calculating how much bandwidth you need becomes your responsibility. You also need to manage to scale this connection up or down when the time comes.
Hire admins and technicians- The servers won’t run themselves. You need to onboard more people on your team requiring both recruitment resources and payroll expenses.

Why startups host their applications in the cloud

When hosting applications in the cloud, AWS for example, scalability is a huge benefit. A company could easily scale from “testing an idea” in a simple app with low resource dependency to developing and running a full-fledged application with thousands of users. The best part is, it wouldn’t require a huge effort on the technical team’s side. Simply purchase more resources from the cloud provider. What normally would be a multi-faceted scaling operation becomes a single vendor exchange.

AWS is also a place where you can connect other services (machine learning, AI, processing, databases, developer tools, business applications, etc.) with one click. You have a huge pool of tools and resources at your disposal quickly. Since the provider is handling the onboarding process for all these services, you don’t incur the workload and resource strain.

We should also mention virtual private servers (VPS). In this model, you buy a virtual machine from a cloud provider. You have a blank slate and everything has to be chosen and installed “by hand”. This option is ok for a small, stable company. But when it comes to fast-growing startups, they will run into some of the same issues and bottlenecks that are faced with hosting the applications on-premise.

A quick note about security in the cloud

Security has long been the weak link when it comes to cloud hosting. You can’t be more secure than hosting data on your own servers, that you own and operate in your building. That is assuming you have sufficient security measures and experts in place.

In the case of extremes, on-premise hosting is more secure. But for most companies, applications, and projects cloud hosting is just fine. You will have no problem finding cloud providers that are compliant with GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and other privacy regulations. Privacy law landscapes have become dynamic, it’s also nice to have this legal burden handled by your provider.

In hand with data privacy compliance, it’s also possible to choose in which country your data is stored. Establishing something called data residency, an important factor to data privacy law compliance in some cases. Nearly every well-established cloud service provider boasts a slew of security certificates such as ISO 27001 and more.

Conclusion

Hosting your application and website on the cloud reduces overhead and expenses while increasing your agility and scalability as a company. Hosting on the cloud is not just about saving time and money. It’s also about a new, leaner way of building digital products. There is no faster and easier way to scale computing resources and add services than with cloud services. It’s no wonder startups who work with us today see cloud as the only option for their project.

Peter Curac-Dahl

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